Submissives Caught on Camera, by J.R. Luxor, follows the lives of four couples in the San Francisco Bay Area who practice BDSM in their sex lives; sometimes, to varying degrees, with each other. This is the third of a series, beginning with BDSM Romance, How One Man Recruited and Trained a sub, and then Wearing His Collar, the View from Below. In Camera, the four couples decide to make a documentary video of one of their events, their sex parties. Not all of the woman of the four has sex with men other than her partner. The couples have different arrangements for their sexual interactions with others. In BDSM Romance, one of the men, John, met and formed a mated pair with Curi. John challenged Curi to look inside herself to see if she was a masochistic submissive personality. She accepted his challenge and took the leap. She found that she loved it as nothing before and never wanted to go back to the surface world. In Wearing His Collar, the readers learned how the sexual dynamics of the group evolve when Curi joins them. John and Curi enjoy role playing with BDSM skits in private at home, and then branch out to watch the other couples perform scenes for the group, and Curi finds she enjoys being watched when her turn comes to do a skit for them with John. In Camera, we’re introduced to Bridget, who is hired to shoot, direct, produce and edit their movie. Bridget is a unicorn, a female whose “thing” is threesomes with couples, either husbands and their wives or guys and steady girlfriends. Bridget refuses the group’s multiple invitations to play with them sexually, in spite of liking them as she gets to know them, because of her business ethic of not having sex with current clients. Her professionalism keeps her at arms’ length from her new friends, but the video product she produces memorializes profound observations not just about these eight individuals, but the practice of BDSM sex with multiple partners as a hobby. Curi continues the evolve in her search for her sexual dynamic niche as her BDSM role playing with John in skits for the others begins to overlap with the performance of another couple in their circle. Curi is surprised by what she discovers about herself as she finds a BFF in Lily, the collared sub of John’s friend, Michael. The evolution of Curi continues, effecting the lives and arrangements of everyone around her.

This is the first time that an author reached out to me and asked me to read a book to provide a review. It’s quite an interesting experience, I must say. I will also say that I’m rather glad that the author did reach out, because this was a good book. It wasn’t perfect, but I liked the concept and it really made me wonder how much experience the author has with this lifestyle. It was very naturally written.

But before I begin with how much I did like it, I have to get a little into some of the things that hindered me from really liking this. This story starts in the middle of a series, no problem, except I haven’t read the other books, so I felt a little lost trying to connect with characters that I had no back story to. Had I had that background, I certainly would have enjoyed them more, rather I was left feeling as though there was more going on than I understood.

There was also times when the story felt a little disjointed, transitions from scene to scene wasn’t always clear, though the scenes themselves were well laid out. If this had been fleshed out more, this would have been better. Instead, we’re moving from past to present memories with no clear indication that a transition has been made. It was frustrating and confusing at times.

What’s weird though, is that I just really liked this over all. I could actually forgive some of the editing because I was invested in the scenes. I love reading about BDSM and this felt authentic. Like the writer wasn’t trying too hard. Scenes are described naturally and they aren’t over the top, even though the “play” sequences are. If that makes sense. I felt like the Circle of Rope group, was as an actual group of people who routinely get together. I guess what I’m saying here is that this read more like a journal entry/memoir than a work of fiction. The scenes are filthy and the author has a natural affinity to write about non-consensual play which makes me wonder how much experience the author has with it. Wouldn’t I love to know?! Wink wink.

I’d really like to see the story developed more and slowed down. This could be a solid 4 stars, but right now it gets a 2.5-3.